The Long Swim

The Long Swim

This swim marked the beginning of a worldwide campaign to ensure that 30% of our oceans are fully protected by 2030.

Some 2,000 people have swum across the English Channel since Captain Matthew Webb famously first made it in 1875. But no one has ever done the same along its length.

Until the summer of 2018.

During July and August 2018, Lewis Pugh became the first person to swim the full length of the English Channel, from Land's End to Dover, in just his cap, goggles and Speedo swimming trunks, as dictated by Channel Rules.

The 530 km distance was the equivalent of 16 back-to-back English Channel crossings, and took a total of 49 days, many of them battling tides and weather.

The swim was a resounding success, and lead to the British government announcing that it would be the first manor economy to call for the protection of 30% of the world's oceans by 2030.

Why here, why now?

Of the 750,000 square kilometres of seas around the UK, only 7 square kilometres are fully protected.

You read that right. A mere one hundred thousandth of UK waters are fully protected from exploitation.

The same holds for British overseas territorial waters such as South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, one of the world’s most crucial biodiversity hotspots; less than 2% of these waters are properly protected.

This swim marked the beginning of a worldwide campaign to ensure that 30% of our oceans are fully protected by 2030.